This invention is in the field of safety attachments, and more particularly relates to reflectors for providing greater capability of attracting attention under widely varying conditions of ambient or incident light.
It is known in the art to affix devices to objects for the purpose of enhancing the visibility of the object. Thus, reflecting taillight lenses on automobiles are required in every state, and reflective devices are known for placement on the road to warn of disabled vehicles.
While the various devices which are known have merit for the function they perform, most of them are stationary devices having no independent motion; and although the lack of independent motion is not a drawback in itself, neither does it add any value to the reflector, nor aid in any way in drawing attention to the object, other than by the reflection of incident illumination.
For example, if an automobile is by the side of the road, the headlights of a car approaching from the rear will produce a reflection from the taillights. However, except for that reflected light, nothing in or about the lens serves to attract attention, and the stationary light is as easy to overlook as a reflection from a discarded bottle or can.
The same considerations apply to such things as bicycles and other small vehicles, with perhaps additional force. For some reason, many motorists fail to see anything smaller than another automobile on the road, and collisions between motorcycles or bicycles and automobiles occur too often because the driver of the automobile has simply failed to see the cyclist, especially from directly to the front or the rear.
One approach to the problem has been to provide bicycles, specifically, with reflectors on the spokes of the wheel, and with reflectors on the pedals. These measures have been effective in increasing the visibility of a bicycle at night, because automobiles generally operate with their headlights on, and the beam is reflected back to the driver by the reflectors attached to the bicycle.
However, under conditions where the automobile may be operated without the headlights, such as the early evening or late dawn hours, or in cloudy weather, the attached reflectors are substantially ineffective. In a similar fashion, the reflectors are of little or no value under conditions of normal illumination, such as sunlight or light clouds which may obscure the sun without substantially diminishing the ambient illumination. In such cases, the cyclist takes his chances on being seen or not being seen, based only on the cycle itself.
In order to overcome this latter problem, many bicyclists, although virtually no motorcylists, employ a brightly colored flag at the end of a long flexible rod affixed to the bicycle; when the cyclist is peddling, the slight back-and-forth motion imparted to the bicycle by the cyclist's legs is amplified by the rod, causing the flag to whip slightly, irrespective of wind conditions. The attention of the operator of a motor vehicle is more readily attracted to this motion, and the safety of the cyclist is thereby enhanced. However, the flag device is of little practical value in the dark or under reduced illumination, and necessarily imparts an undesirable, if slight, drag to the bicycle due to wind resistance.
It would therefore be desirable for improved safety to slow-moving or small vehicles or objects to provide a device which would attract attention to such an object in time to prevent emergency situations from arising.